Saint-Nicolas (; Valdôtain: ) is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the autonomous region of

Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...

, in northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is located between above sea level, overlooking the four major lateral valleys of the mid-upper Aosta valley: the Cogne Valley, the Valsavarenche, the Rhêmes Valley and the Valgrisenche.

Sites

Saint-Nicolas consists of a small village and numerous hamlets or ''

frazioni A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidat ...

'', locally officially called ''hameaux'' (in French).

Culture

Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne

Saint-Nicolas was the birthplace of Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne, a

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

who firstly studied Aosta Valley's native language, the

Valdôtain dialect Valdôtain (; endonym: , , ) is a dialect of Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) spoken in the Aosta Valley in Italy, and the common language of the Aosta Valley. It is commonly known as ''patois'' or . It is not an official language, the two regional o ...

. He authored some poems in his native ''patois'' and wrote the first

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

and

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

of the Valdôtain dialect.

Center for Francoprovençal Studies

The Center for Francoprovençal Studies (French: ''Centre d'études francoprovençales''), or CEFP, located in the village of Fossaz-dessus, is one of the most important centers for Francoprovençal language research. It opened November 12, 1988 and was dedicated to the Aosta Valley writer and playwright René Willien. The CEFP is located in an 18th-century ''maison paysanne'' (farmhouse) which was completely restored by architects Louis Bochet and Albert Breuvé. Typical of these multi-function structures, locally called a ''pailler'', the animals, hay, and farm implements filled the

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G ...

(''booué'') on the ground floor, the family

kitchen A kitchen is a room (architecture), room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a Kitchen stove, stove, a sink ...

(''meison'') occupied first floor, and the sleeping room (') was located on the second floor. Among the center's holdings is the archive of the "Concours Cerlogne," a poetry, drama and music competition in the regional language reserved for elementary school students in the Aosta Valley that has been held annually since 1963. The CEFP works in collaboration with the Regional Bureau of Ethnology and Linguistics (French: ''Bureau régional pour l'ethnologie et la linguistique'') (BREL) of Aosta, and other research centers in France and

Romandy Romandy ( or ; Arpitan: ''Romandia'')Before World War I, the term French Switzerland () waalso used ( or , , ) is the French-speaking historical and cultural region of Switzerland. In 2020, about 2 million people, or 22.8% of the Swiss pop ...

Gerbore Museum

This museum, situated in the village of Lyverloulaz, demonstrates the impact of agricultural mechanization in Aosta Valley through the experiences of Joseph Gerbore. Founded by the municipality of Saint-Nicolas, the Aosta Valley Region, and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, it hosts exhibitions, including ''Le temps des pionniers'', at the ''Maison de la Tor'' building.

References

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